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| The Epistle Written by Malchion, In Name of the Synod of Antioch, Against Paul of Samosata.
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I.—The Epistle Written by Malchion,
In Name of the Synod of Antioch,
Against Paul of Samosata.
————————————
To Dionysius and Maximus, and to all our fellows in the
ministry throughout the world, both bishops and presbyters and deacons,
and to the whole Catholic Church under heaven, Helenus and
Hymenæus and Theophilus and Theotecnus and Maximus, Proclus,
Nicomas, and Ælianus, and Paul and Bolanus and Protogenes and
Hierax and Eutychius and Theodorus and Malchion and Lucius, and all the
others who are with us, dwelling in the neighbouring cities and
nations, both bishops and presbyters and deacons, together with the
churches of God, send greeting to our brethren beloved in the Lord.
1. After some few introductory words, they
proceed thus:—We wrote to many of the bishops, even those who
live at a distance, and exhorted them to give their help in relieving
us from this deadly doctrine; among these, we addressed, for instance,
Dionysius, the bishop of Alexandria, and Firmilian of Cappadocia, those
men of blessed name. Of these, the one wrote to Antioch without
even deigning to honour the leader in this error by addressing him; nor
did he write to him in his own name, but to the whole
district,1392
of which letter
we have also subjoined a copy. And Firmilian, who came twice in
person, condemned the innovations in doctrine, as we who were present
know and bear witness, and as many others know as well as we. But
when he (Paul) promised to give up these opinions, he believed him; and
hoping that, without any reproach to the Word, the matter would be
rightly settled, he postponed his decision; in which action, however,
he was deceived by that denier of his God and Lord, and betrayer of the
faith which he formerly held. And now Firmilian was minded to
cross to Antioch; and he came as far as Tarsus, as having already made
trial of the man’s infidel1393
iniquity. But when we had just
assembled, and were calling for him and waiting for his arrival, his
end came upon him.
2. After other matters again, they tell us
in the following terms of what manner of life he was:—But there
is no need of judging his actions when he was outside (the Church),
when he revolted from the faith and turned aside to spurious and
illegitimate doctrines. Nor need we say any thing of such matters
as this, that, whereas he was formerly poor and beggarly, having
neither inherited a single possession from his fathers, nor acquired
any property by art or by any trade, he has now come to have excessive
wealth by his deeds of iniquity and sacrilege, and by those means by
which he despoils and concusses the brethren, casting the injured
unfairly in their suit,1394
| 1394
καταβραβεύων,
perhaps = "receiving" bribes from. | and promising to help them for a price,
yet deceiving them all the while and to their loss, taking advantage of
the readiness of those in difficulties to give in order to get
deliverance from what troubled them, and thus supposing that gain is
godliness.1395
Neither
need I say any thing about his pride and the haughtiness with which he
assumed worldly dignities, and his wishing to be styled
procurator1396
| 1396
δουκηνάριος, the name given under the Emperors to those
procurators who received 200 sestertia of annual salary. | rather than
bishop, and his strutting through the market-places, and reading
letters and reciting them1397
| 1397
ὑπαγορεύων.
[Letters, e.g., from Zenobia.] | as he walked in public, and his being
escorted by multitudes of people going before him and following
him; so that he brought ill-will and hatred on the faith by his haughty
demeanour and by the arrogance of his heart. Nor shall I say any
thing of the quackery which he practises in the ecclesiastical
assemblies, in the way of courting popularity and making a great
parade, and astounding by such arts the minds of the less
sophisticated; nor of his setting up for himself a lofty tribunal and
throne, so unlike a disciple of Christ; nor of his having a
secretum1398
| 1398
σήκρητον (from
the Latin secerno, to separate) was the name given to the
elevated place, railed in and curtained, where the magistrate sat to
decide cases. | and calling
it by that name, after the manner of the rulers of this world; nor of
his striking his thigh with his hand and beating the tribunal with his
feet; nor of his censuring and insulting those who did not applaud him
nor shake their handkerchiefs,1399
| 1399
κατασείουσι
ταῖς
ὀθόναις, alluding to the
custom of shaking the oraria or linen handkerchiefs as a token
of applause. [Elucid. II.] | as is done in the theatres, nor bawl out
and leap about after the manner of his partisans, both male and female,
who were such disorderly listeners to him, but chose to hear reverently
and modestly as in the house of God; nor of his unseemly and violent
attacks in the congregation upon the expounders of the Word who have
already departed this life, and his magnifying of himself, not like a
bishop, but like a sophist and juggler; nor of his putting a stop to
the psalms sung in honour of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the recent
compositions of recent men, and preparing women to sing psalms in
honour of himself in the midst of the Church. in the great day of the
Paschal festival, which choristers one might shudder to hear. And
besides, he acted on those bishops and presbyters, who fawned upon him
in the neighbouring districts and cities, to advance the like opinions
in their discourses to their people.
3. For we may say, to anticipate a little
what we intend to write below, that he does not wish to acknowledge
that the Son of God came down from heaven. And this is a
statement which shall not be made to depend on simple assertion; for it
is proved abundantly by those memoranda which we sent you, and not
least by that passage in which he says that Jesus Christ is from
below. And they who sing his praise and eulogise him among the
people, declare that their impious teacher has come down as an angel
from heaven. And such utterances the haughty man does not check,
but is present even when they are made. And then again there are
these women—these adopted sisters,1400
| 1400
συνεισάκτους
γυναῖκας,
priests’-housekeepers. See Lange on Nicephorus vi. 30, and
B. Rhenanus on Rufinus, vii. The third canon of the Nicene
Council in the Codex Corbeiensis has this title, De subintroductis
id est adoptivis sororibus. Of the subintroduced, that is, the
adopted sisters.See also on the abuse, Jerome, in the
Epistle to Eustochius. They appear also to have been
called commanentes and agapetæ. See the
note of Valesius in Migne. [Vol. ii. p. 47, and (same vol.)
Elucidation II. p. 57.] | as the people of Antioch call them—who
are kept by him and by the presbyters and deacons with him, whose
incurable sins in this and other matters, though he is cognisant of
them, and has convicted them, he connives at concealing, with the view
of keeping the men subservient to himself, and preventing them, by fear
for their own position, from daring to accuse him in the matter of his
impious words and deeds. Besides this, he has made his followers
rich, and for that he is loved and admired by those who set their
hearts on these things. But why should we write of these
things? For, beloved, we know that the bishop and all the
clergy1401
ought to be an
example in all good works to the people. Nor are we ignorant of
the fact that many have fallen away through introducing these women
into their houses, while others have fallen under suspicion. So
that, even although one should admit that he has been doing nothing
disgraceful in this matter, yet he ought at least to have avoided the
suspicion that springs out of such a course of conduct, lest perchance
some might be offended, or find inducement to imitate him. For
how, then, should any one censure another, or warn him to beware of
yielding to greater familiarity with a woman, lest perchance he might
slip, as it is written:1402
if, although he has dismissed one, he
has still retained two with him, and these in the bloom of their youth,
and of fair countenance; and if when he goes away he takes them with
him; and all this, too, while he indulges in luxury and
surfeiting?
4. And on account of these things all are
groaning and lamenting with themselves; yet they have such a dread of
his tyranny and power that they cannot venture on accusing him.
And of these things, as we have said already, one might take account in
the case of a man who held Catholic sentiments and belonged to our own
number; but as to one who has betrayed1403
| 1403
ἐξορχησάμενον,
danced away. | the mystery (of the faith), and who
swaggers1404
with the
abominable heresy of Artemas,—for why should we hesitate to
disclose his father?—we consider it unnecessary to exact of him
an account for these things.
5. Then at the close of the epistle they
add the following words:—We have been compelled, therefore,
to excommunicate this man, who thus opposeth God Himself, and refuses
submission, and to appoint in his place another bishop for the Church
Catholic, and that, as we trust, by the providence of God—namely,
the son of Demetrianus, a man of blessed memory, and one who presided
over the same Church with distinction in former times, Domnus by name,
a man endowed with all the noble qualities which become a bishop. And this fact we
have communicated to you in order that ye may write him, and receive
letters of communion1405
| 1405
κοινωνικὰ
γράμματα. On this
Valesius gives the following note:—The Latins call these
litteræ communicatoriæ, the use of which is of very
ancient date in the Church. They called the same also
formatæ, as Augustine witnesses in Epistle 163. There
were, moreover, two kinds of them. For there were some which were
given to the clergy and laity when about to travel, that they might be
admitted to communion by foreign bishops. And there were others
which bishops were in the way of sending to other bishops, and which
they in turn received from others, for the purpose of attesting their
inter-communion; of which sort the Synod speaks here. These were
usually sent by recently-ordained bishops soon after their
ordination. Augustine, Epistle 162; Cyprian, in the Epistle to
Cornelius, p. 320; and the Synodical Epistle of the Council of Sardica,
appear to refer to these, though they may refer also to the
formatæ. [Vol. i. p. 12, n. 9.] |
from him. And that other may write to Artemas, if it please him;
and those who think with Artemas may hold communion with him, if they
are so minded.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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